F105 The state of healthcare digitalization in Australia (Louise Schaper, AIDH)

Australia was in the global digital health-related news in 2018 of the national EHR project called My Health Record. The idea behind the project was to digitize the medical records of all the people from Australia. Today, 9 out of 10 Australians have My Health Record. 
 In the discussion you are about to listen to, dr. Louise Shaper, the CEO of Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), renowned speaker and a dedicated digital health evangelist, shared her deep insight into the state of digitalization of healthcare in Australia, the organizations driving technological progress in healthcare, and also her PhD about technology acceptance amongst healthcare professionals.
Australasian Institute of Digital Health: https://digitalhealth.org.au/ 
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F104 Digital health in Spain and what is the concept of a liquid hospital? (Cesar Morcillo Serra)

Spain has a universal healthcare system, where anyone that pays social security contributions is eligible for healthcare. From the digitalization perspective, Spain does not have a national institution to coordinate digital health projects. Instead, each of the Spanish regions has authorities with their own budgets. One of the most advanced regions is Catalonia.
Cesar Morcillo Serra is an Internal Medicine specialist from Barcelona, who has a strong interest in eHealth. He had lead several Digital Health transformation projects inside the Cima hospital where he works in. In this discussion, he talks about what it takes for a hospital to be digitally advanced, what is a concept of a liquid hospital and how does the Spanish healthcare system works. 
 
Cesar is the speaker at the Barcelona Health Hub Summit (29 October): https://bhhsummit.com/ Join free! 
Episode recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f-104-digital-health-in-spain-and-what-is-a-liquid-hospital-cesar-morcillo-serra 
To learn more about the digital health ecosystem in Barcelona, listen to episode 63 with Aline Noizet: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f063-how-to-build-a-community-in-healthcare-aline-noizet?rq=aline 
 
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F103 How are smart garments making remote patient monitoring comfortable? (Laurent Vandebrouck, Chronolife)

Chronolife is a French company innovating in the space of smart garments for remote patient monitoring. Clothes are not the main innovation of the company, their secret sauce is a patented neuromorphic (bio-mimetic) algorithm, HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time-Surfaces). The algorithm detects and predicts deterioration in patients’ state of health and alerts caregivers to allow earlier intervention and avoid costly hospitalizations. The company’s mission is  to enable healthcare professionals to have timely information for earlier intervention and to ensure a continuum of care that fills the existing gaps from hospital to home.
In this episode, the CEO Laurent Vandebrouck shares his thoughts about the French healthcare system in terms of digitalization, comments the position of smart garments on the market crowded with other kinds of wearables, and also answered questions like – can you destroy a smart shirt by not washing it currently? 
 
Episode recap: www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/f103-how-are-smart-garments-making-remote-patient-monitoring-comfortable-laurent-vanderbrouck-chronolife
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F102 How are connected health devices becoming increasingly medically relevant (Mathieu Letombe, Withings)

Do you remember the first connected scale? It came to the market in 2009 by a French company called Withings. By today the company created a number of connected health devices and is increasing its efforts to expand its presence in the clinical space.
Withings offers a range of products: a connected scale, a digital thermometer, a wireless blood pressure cuff, a mat to detect sleep apnea, a smartwatch with ECG, and sleep apnea monitoring was released in 2020.
 In this episode, the CEO of Withings Mathieu Letombe talks about: 

the landscape of connected health devices,

quantification of health

how companies can attract doctors to work with them given the busy schedules clinicians have.

 
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F101 A collection of thoughts about digital health from around the world

This episode is a collection of thoughts giving you a glimpse into the global digital health market. Leave a rating or a review: https://lovethepodcast.com/facesofdigitalhealth 

Speakers: 

Dr. Daniel Kraft, one of the top opinion leaders in digital health, nicely summarized the current state of digital health in Episode 81.  

Julien de Salaberry, the CEO of Galen Growth Asia emphasized in Episode 41 that is important to keep in mind when thinking about expanding in this area of the world.

Guillem Serra, the CEO of the Spanish based company Mediquo, guest in Episode 84, says that in internationalization and looking at new potential markets, language is the most important factor to consider.  

Different countries differ in their culture and how technologies are used. I’d say that different parts of the world “run” on different platforms. In China, society runs on WeChat. In India, the key communication platform in Whatsapp. Abhishek Shah, CEO of Wellthy digital therapeutics company from India, who was the guest of Episode 78, explained how the use of Whatsapp in India differs from the West. It is gaining a similar significance as WeChat has in China. This is why Wellthy conducted some of their clinical studies through Whatsapp. 

Have you ever wondered, what is the digital health scene like in Africa? You know, the continent that many people around the world talk about as a country, but actually consists of 54 countries? Among the speakers on the show coming from Africa, was the founder of Mobile Afya – Mariatheresa Samson Kadushi. She is a Tanzanian innovator passionate about disrupting the public health sector, which is in Africa marked by traditional beliefs. In Episode 056 she among other things explained how in Africa, worries about privacy in the digital age are not worries about how are global corporations are exploiting our data.

Moving from Asia to Africa, European healthcare systems are often praised for universal access to care. However, as mentioned by the patient advocate Bettina Ryll in Episode 68, in Europe where you live significantly impacts your access to healthcare. Especially in rare diseases chances of survival of a patient can depend on where the patient resides and are there any clinical trials near her. People move, to get a chance at survival. This very much reminds me of the often-mentioned fact by US experts, that the ZIP code the biggest determinant of health is. 

From a business perspective, Europe is a complicated market. You need to tackle language barriers, the diversity of healthcare systems and policies. Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics startup that was founded in Germany and is now operating in the US market as well. In Episode 77 Mark Liber, the VP of business development at Kaia Health, talked about the differences they are noticing between the German and the US. 

While we mostly perceive the future of healthcare digitization as a one-way progression street, Luis Santigo, the CEO of a Venezuelan healthcare IT company PEGASI explained how progress can get crushed when the economic situation of a country changes. In the last few years, in Venezuela, many hospitals had to switch from IT back to paper, because IT companies went bankrupt and ceased existing.

F100 Digital health in South America 4/4: Venezuela: “Many hospitals went from digital back to paper” (Luis Santiago, Pegasi)

This is the 4th part of a short series about healthcare and digital health in South America. After presenting Brazil, Colombian and Argentina, Luis Santiago talks about Venezuela and Chile.